Creamy Chicken Pasta

Hi there. I was craving for some creamy pasta and since I'm not a fan of canned carbonara sauce, I came up with this dish for yesterday's dinner after reading up on options for creamy sauce. It was relatively easy to make though I wish I had more ingredients on hand. The end result was a delicious light yet creamy pasta, packed with flavours. Even my 2 yo enjoyed it.
Do give it a try and you can improvise it with more ingredients which I plan to do next.

I used :

Angel hair pasta, enough for 2 people, cooked al dente. Drain and keep aside.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, rubbed with salt, ground pepper and italian herbs.
Leave chicken aside while you prepare other ingredients.

Sauce :
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, sliced thinly
3/4 cup low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup thickend cream (I use Paul's)
Italian herbs
Chiili flakes (to taste)
Olive oil for cooking
Salt (if needed. I did not add any salt as the stock had salt in it)

In a non stick pan, heat some olive oil and cook chicken breast till the middle is not pink (do not overcook). Turn off fire, cover the pan and keep aside.

In another pan, heat olive oil, saute onion and garlic till aromatic. Add chilli flakes and dried Italian herbs. Mix well.
Add in chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile slice the chicken breast. Add it to the sauce.
Pour in the cream on low fire, mix well. Taste for flavour and add salt if needed.

Now add in the pasta and coat well. Turn off fire. Serve warm with grated parmesan.

* You may add sliced button mushrooms after the onion and garlic.

Easy pasta ready to serve. Enjoy!!!

Eggless Coconut Cake

A yummy, moist cake. Perfect with a cuppa.

Baked this for my on going event : bake-along-challenge-7-coconut
To all fellow bakers/bloggers, do join the challenge.

Ingredients :

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method :

Heat oven 170C.
Beat softened butter with sugar in an electric mixer.
In another bowl, mix flour with baking powder and soda.
Add flour mixture to the butter, alternating it with yogurt and milk till all incorporated. Add vanilla. Do not overmix.
Fold in the desiccated coconut
Pour in a prepared and greased 8' pan.
Bake at 170C for 40 minutes or till toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Adding it to my event :

Butter Chicken Masala

Here comes my 200th post. Can't believe I've actually done 200 posts...Super happy ;).

So this weekend I chose to cook a yummy, flavourful butter chicken masala. I did not use any red colouring so if you would like it to look red, you can add in some colour. Even my 2 year old enjoyed it.



Ingredients :

Oil for cooking.

To marinate :

1/2 kg boneless, skinless chicken pieces
1/2 cup yogurt
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
salt to taste

Mix above ingredients and leave aside.

For masala,
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
Oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
bay leaf -2
2 big tomatoes, pureed
1/4 cup cooking cream
1 tbsp. dried fenugreek leaves
salt to taste
water

Method:

Heat a oil in a pan and place the marinated chicken in a single layer and cook . Flip and cook on both sides. Remove and keep aside.

In a wok, heat butter, add cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add in the chopped onions and cook till slightly browned. Add in ginger garlic paste, bay leaf and sauté for a min.

Add in chilli powder, garam masala powder and salt. Stir well and add in tomate puree. Cover and cook abt 5-8 mins. Add water as required.

Now add in chicken pieces and mix well. Cook on low heat till chicken tender. Add in cream and dried fenugreek leaves. Simmer for a couple of mins and turn off heat.

Serve hot.

Bake Along Challenge # 7 : Coconut

Here's a new Bake Along Challenge.

And the Theme is : Coconut

Yes, the highlight of your bake will be Coconut.

So, do join in and make some yummy treats ;)

Here's some ideas I found on baking with Coconut :

Top 10 Coconut Recipes
Coconut desserts

 The simple rules are :
1. Follow my blog
2. Bake anything using Coconut, it can be either fresh, sweetened, desiccated....your choice.
3.Add your post to the linky tool provided and also post a link of this event in your post.
4. Usage of logo is mandatory.
5. Any number of entries are allowed.
6. Event runs from 23/2/15 till 30/3/15.
7. To those who bake but do not blog, feel free to send in the images of ur baked goods by email to : resh_82@hotmail.com. I will add it to the round-up.

 I will post a round up of the event in the month of April.

Happy Baking ;)

Round- up of Bake Along Challenge #6 : Chocolate

Hi hi..here's a round-up of our last challenge. There's cakes, brownies and cookies to all you choc enthusiasts out there.
To all those who joined, thank you so much and do join in the upcoming Bake Along Challengeds. To others, do try out the recipes and happy baking everyone.

1.  Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

2. Layered Dark and White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

3. Chocolate Cherry Cake - whole wheat, vegan

4. Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

- unable to post pic.


5. Eggless Black Forest Cake

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

Good morning everyone, 2014 is quickly coming to an end and that means holidays, shopping, parties, vacations....Well, no vacation for me as the boss froze our leaves for these 2 months ;( but lotsa shopping (even the husband noticed that I've been shopping too much this month, haha) and an upcoming Xmas party, say YES!

How are you ladies spending the holidays? I'm sure there'll be lots of cooking and baking involved ;).

Yesterday I baked this sinfully fudgy brownies with swirls of Nutella Cheesecake in it..hmmm, it was even better than how I expected it to be. It was for a friend of mine and still we got to taste it. So here goes, Nutella Cheesecake Brownies which is super moist and chocolatey to the max. Enjoy!!!

 

You need :

An 8 inch square pan, greased and lined with baking paper.

Brownie batter :

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1/3 cup plain flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 tbsp. Nutella

Cheesecake batter:

8 oz Philadelphia cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/3 cup Nutella

Method :

Heat oven to 170C.

Brownie batter:

Beat butter and brown sugar, add eggs and beat well. Add in cocoa powder, flour, mix. Lastly add Nutella and mix till combined. I just mixed it all using a bowl and spatula.

Cheesecake batter :

Beat room temperature cheese with an electric mixer. Add in sugar, mix well. Add eggs one at a time, beat. Lastly add in Nutella and ensure that all in combined well.

Now pour brownie batter into prepared pan. Then scoop out cheesecake batter onto the brownie batter till it forms a top layer. You may leave it as that or do swirls using a butter knife.

Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 45-50 minutes till a skewer inserted in the middle comes with crumbs (not too dry).

Cool on a wiring rack. let it sit in the pan about an hour.

I'm linking this to my on going event
Bake Along Challenge # 6

Cooks Joy , Bake Fest

What's with my cuppa

Bake Along Challenge # 6 : Chocolate

Hi everyone...I'm back with my event after a looonngggg absence. Yup, life has been super busy with the arrival of the princess, a new job, an upcoming new house, a home baking business and a long distance marriage with the husband pursuing his Masters..Phewww. In the midst of all this, I've missed cooking and baking for pleasure. So, here goes.. Bake Along Challenge #6..I hope it will inspire me and you to try out a new recipe as it's the holiday season after all!

And the Theme is : Chocolate

Yes, let's start off with this favourite ingredient of mine.

 So, do join in and make some yummy treats ;)

The simple rules are :
1. Follow my blog
2. Bake anything using Chocolate, it can be cocoa, white, milk or dark chocolate..your choice.
3.Add your post to the linky tool provided and also post a link of this event in your post.
4. Usage of logo is mandatory.
5. Any number of entries are allowed.
6. Event runs from 17/12/14 till 30/1/15.

I will post a round up of the event in the month of Feb.

Happy Baking ;)

Anniversary Dinner at Tamarind Hill Kuala Lumpur

It was our 4 years Anniversary on the 12/12 and I decided to make a reservation at this restaurant in KL which I've been waiting to try out for quite some time. The reviews on this place has always been good and consistent. So when I called up the place and was told that they might close up the restaurant for a big party booking, I was truly disappointed ;(. I was told that my reservation will be put on hold till they get a confirmation from the other party,,,hmmm.

Well, when they called back on the 9/12 and told me that my reservation has been confirmed, I was over the moon...haha. I even requested for a corner table in the outdoor setting as it was our anniversary.

On the day itself, I surprised the husband with a cake I made specially for the occasion. Here's a couple of pics of the cake :

It was a Buttermilk Cake with Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting and Fresh Berries.
I was hunting for some edible flowers bt there was no stock in all the usual places so had to put up with just the berries. I was a little sad that my whole idea of the cake did not materialize due to the flowers but the cake itself was truly enjoyed by all and had the perfect crumb and texture. Haha..so happy ;).

Now, back to the dinner....It ended up being a rainy evening (been raining on and off here in Malaysia) and the rain stopped just before we reached the restaurant. Thank God for that as the restaurant itself is atop a little hill and the pathway of stairs are lit with beautiful lanterns and we still managed to enjoy our walk up.

We were then greeted by a friendly waiter and quickly led us to our reserved table...yes, at a corner. The lighting and ambience gave out the romantic feel. We started off with a cocktail for me and a whiskey for the husband. Upon the waiter's recommendation I chose the Apple Cinnamon cocktail and my, it was truly a great start. I loved it so much!

Apple Cinnamon Cocktail

Next came our platter of starters and every bit was flavourful with different textures, me and the husband gave it two thumbs up.

Starters

 

 

Now to our main course, we had Jasmine fragrant rice with my all time fav Green Curry Chicken, Steamed Ginger Fish and broccoli in oyster sauce.

Main course

The fish came deboned and so flavourful. The green curry wasn't the best (guess I've tried too many to say so) and the vege was just nice. Overall a lovely meal that we were so full at the end of it.

But there has to be dessert, right. It's a celebratory dinner after all. This time we decided to go for liquid dessert..yes, dessert in the form of cocktails ;). I chose the Black Forest and the husband went with the Chocolate Volcano.



Black Forest



Chocolate Volcano

Yummmssss...it was boozy treat indeed ;). Mine had a strong Baileys taste and the husband's was more of a chocolatey one.


And so our lovely romantic dinner came to an end with both of us feeling refreshed and me a little giddy from the cocktail ;)

Cheers!